Judaism

Judaism is an ancient monotheistic religion, the sixth-largest religion on Earth. The faith originated with the Ten Commandments, which were said to have been handed down to Moses by God on Mount Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Moses spread these commandments to his people, the Jews, and Judaism followed these tenets: having one god, having no graven images or likenesses of God, never taking God's name in vain, remembering the sabbath (prayer) day, honoring one's parents, refraining from violence, refraining from adultery, not engaging in theft, not bearing false witness (lying), and not coveting (jealousy). Since the Exodus from Egypt, the Jews were constantly harassed and discriminated against, whether it was by the pagan peoples of Egypt, Babylon, and the Roman Empire during the BCE era, or by the Christians of Europe and the Muslims of the Middle East during the Common Era. Judaism is a unique faith, as its followers have formed an ethnoreligious diaspora; because of the frequent migrations of the Jews due to persecution, many Jewish ethnic divisions have formed, such as the Ashkenazim in Europe, the Sephardim in Spain and North Africa, and Mizrachi Jews in the Middle East, among others. All of the divisions, however, continue to adhere to their religion, and they are united by the Hebrew language.

Judaism holds that Moses, David, Solomon, and other great Jewish leaders were prophets from God, and that God was preparing to send a new messiah to deliver them, the "chosen people", from evil. Judaism does not believe that Jesus was the son of God or a prophet; Jesus was a rabbi who spread his own message, which would evolve into Christianity. Jews would be accused by the Christians of killing Jesus due to the opposition to Jesus' teachings by the Jewish elders in the Roman province of Judaea, and Jews would frequently suffer persecution at the hands of the Christians due to being seen as "Christ-killers". It would not be until 1948 that the Jews had a land of their own, Israel, which was formed in the aftermath of World War II. Today 14,300,000 people practice Judaism, while many other people are of ethnic Jewish descent or descended from religious Jews.